[Editorial] Abe at U.S. Congress

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is likely to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress during his visit to the U.S. at the end of next month, becoming the first Japanese leader ever to do so.Abe’s speech would be a diplomatic coup for Japan which had, in the past, unsuccessfully attempted to have its leader address both the House of Representatives and the Senate. For example, former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s plan to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress in 2006 was scuttle

March 22, 2015

[Editorial] Trilateral summit

Korean Foreign Minister Yun Bung-se, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida met in Seoul on Saturday, convening the annual trilateral foreign ministers’ meeting for the first time in three years ― a much needed occasion as the Northeast Asian region faces growing challenges to regional peace and security as well as economic cooperation.It is telling of the strained relations among the countries that the meeting also marked the first time in five years that

March 22, 2015

[Editorial] Our poor youths

The outcry over the narrow job market has been long growing, especially for our young people. But latest data show that the problem is getting worse. The government’s statistics office said that the nation’s overall jobless rate stood at 4.6 percent last month, the highest since the rate hit 4.9 percent in February 2010.As expected, the jobless rate for young people aged 15 to 29 is much worse. The rate, continuing its ascent for the 18th consecutive month, hit 11.1 percent in February, which is

March 20, 2015

[Editorial] Usual tactics

North Korea is again resorting to mean tactics over the South Korean businesses operating in the Gaeseong industrial park ― making or threatening a unilateral decision, insisting on excessive demands, and rejecting negotiations. The latest trouble surrounds the North’s decision last month to make changes to the wage system for 53,000 workers employed by the 124 South Korean firms in the park located just north of the border. The North said it was increasing the workers’ minimum wage to $74, up 5

March 20, 2015

[Editorial] High time for decision

The “strategic ambiguity” Seoul pursued with regards to the issue of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery on the Korean Peninsula appears to have lost its validity in light of recent developments.For the past two years, the Park Geun-hye government stuck to its position of “no request, no consultation, no decision.” This stance may have served to buy the administration some time in making a decision, but Seoul is now against a wall as China and the U.S. have begun to publicly raise the is

March 19, 2015

[Editorial] Protecting the weak

A mentally disabled woman who was found in a mental institution 33 years after she was reported missing has sued the state.The woman, then 22, left her house in Seoul one day in January 1980, telling her sister that she was going out to look for a job. The next time her family saw her was in December 2013, locked up in a mental institution in Busan.The heartbreaking story is a reminder of how carelessness and oversight by the authorities can lead to unspeakable pain, in this case for the missing

March 19, 2015

[Editorial] Open primaries

The leaders of the two main political parties have revived the idea of selecting candidates for elected posts through the open primary system.In the lead-up to most previous presidential and parliamentary elections, calls mounted for allowing more rank-and-file party members and ordinary voters to participate in the process of nominating candidates. These demands reflected the criticism that the opaque selection process was heavily influenced by a handful of party executives, went against democr

March 18, 2015

[Editorial] Bridging differences

After his meeting with President Park Geun-hye on Tuesday, opposition leader Moon Jae-in said it was a meaningful occasion to allow him to know about Park’s thoughts and let the president listen to his views.Their talks, joined by ruling Saenuri Party Chairman Kim Moo-sung, lasted nearly two hours, far longer than the originally scheduled one hour. Park and Moon focused their discussion on key tasks related to reinvigorating the economy and improving people’s livelihoods. It was desirable for th

March 18, 2015

[Editorial] Too familiar

It is apparent that the prosecution investigating suspected slush funds at the construction unit of POSCO is closing in on the conglomerate’s former CEO Chung Joon-yang and his associates. Prosecutors who raided the head office of POSCO E&C last week have imposed a travel ban on Chung and a group of former and serving executives. They will soon face interrogations over allegations that the company operated slush funds. The company has already said its internal audit found that executives and sta

March 17, 2015

[Editorial] Nowhere to turn to

It is so evident that one may not need statistics to maintain this: Korea is a fast-aging society and many of the elderly population are not financially prepared to support themselves in old age.Yet, data in a report by the Korea Labor Institute are truly alarming: The Korean elderly have the highest poverty rate in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.The institute said the poverty rate among Korean elderly citizens aged 65 or older stood at 48.6 percent in 2011, the highes

March 17, 2015

[Editorial] Orchestra's funding woes

The unthinkable has happened. The Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra announced last week that it is canceling the seven-city U.S. tour it had scheduled for April as it has been unable to secure the 1.7 billion won required for it.Perhaps this should have been expected when the Seoul Metropolitan Council did not approve the orchestra’s request for 1.5 billion won for the tour in December. The subsequent attempt by the orchestra to raise the entire 1.7 billion won through private sponsorship also failed

March 16, 2015

[Editorial] Another hacker threat

The Internet hacker who caused a scare late last year when he posted blueprints of nuclear power plants and threatened to destroy the plants if their operations were not halted struck again last week.The hacker, claiming to be an activist against nuclear power, on Thursday posted blueprints of what he claimed were SMART plants, the type of nuclear power plant that would be exported to the Middle East under the MOU signed recently between Korea and Saudi Arabia. The posting also included a transc

March 16, 2015

[Editorial] Strategic inaction

Agenda discussed at Sunday’s meeting of senior officials from the presidential office, Cabinet and ruling Saenuri Party included whether to allow the U.S. to deploy an advanced missile defense system here despite objections from China.Though the discussion was held behind closed doors, it was unusual for ruling party lawmakers to sit with administration officials in a bid to reach a conclusion on a sensitive security matter. This scene showed that the strategic ambiguity Park Geun-hye’s governme

March 15, 2015

[Editorial] Decrease in emigration

Data released by the Foreign Ministry last week showed that the number of Korean emigrants fell to a record low in 2014. Only 249 Koreans emigrated to foreign countries last year, down from 302 in the previous year. The figure marked the lowest since the government began compiling emigration data in 1962 when 386 people left the country to live abroad.The number of Korean emigrants increased rapidly to a peak of 46,533 in 1976. Until the early 2000s, more than 10,000 Koreans emigrated annually.

March 15, 2015

[Editorial] Governor's bold step

South Gyeongsang Province Gov. Hong Joon-pyo earlier this week declared that his province would only provide free school lunches to students from low-income families, putting an end to the current free-for-all school meals. The resulting savings, totaling 64.3 billion won, would be used to give education vouchers worth 500,000 won to some 100,000 low-income families to be used to pay for school materials and other education-related activities.The announcement is a follow up to Hong’s pledge last

March 13, 2015

[Editorial] Lacking judiciousness

One of the virtues of a good public official is being tight-lipped. In fact, the often sensitive nature of their work requires them to be circumspect with their words and their actions.Hence, it came as a surprise when Chung Chong-wook, vice chairman of the presidential unification preparation committee, told a forum Tuesday that there was a team within the committee that is preparing for unification by absorption. Unification by absorption refers to non-consensual unification. North Korea is hi

March 13, 2015

[Editorial] Made in Korea?

North Korea reportedly took a rare measure early this year to promote its uniformity with South Korea ― in the English notation of the country of origin for its exports.According to a report this week by Radio Free Asia, a U.S.-based nonprofit corporation, North Korean authorities issued a directive on Jan. 8 to change the notation from “Made in DPRK” to “Made in Korea.” DPRK stands for the North’s official name ― the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.The communist regime has adhered to DPRK

March 12, 2015

[Editorial] Income-driven growth

Opposition leader Rep. Moon Jae-in seemed to go too far when he proposed this week that the government and main political parties deliberate on a minimum wage hike to help boost the economy.The chairman of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy said during a meeting hosted by a party think tank that officials from rival parties and the government should get together to discuss how fast the minimum wage should be raised.As the ruling Saenuri Party pointed out in its response to Moon’s proposal,

March 12, 2015

[Editorial] Real reconciliation

Germany and Japan were the Axis powers during World War II. But after defeat in the war, they took very different paths when it came to acknowledgement of what they did during the war and how they tried to heal the historical scars. In short, Germany was reborn as a respected member of the international community and a leader of Europe as it achieved reconciliation with its neighbors by squarely confronting its past misdeeds, including the Holocaust. In contrast, Japan has yet to settle historic

March 11, 2015

[Editorial] Author’s concerns

Kim Young-ran, the former Supreme Court justice who authored the original bill for the landmark anticorruption act named after her, has announced her long-awaited position on the controversial law. In sum, Kim, who proposed the bill in 2011 when she headed the Anti-corruption and Civil Rights Commission, said the act, which passed the parliament recently, was much different from her original draft.Indeed, she did not hide her disappointment with the fact, for instance, that the parliament droppe

March 11, 2015